Tuesday is All Souls Day on the Roman Catholic calendar here. It is a time for Costa Ricans to visit the graves of their loved ones and place flowers in their memory.

The day is not as festive here as it is in México where families hold parties in the cemetery.

Here, typically, family members will attend Mass together and then make the rounds of the family graves. Of course, most families routinely visit and decorate the graves of their departed throughout the year, but Tuesday a visit is close to obligatory.

Rodríguez in prison,
Figueres out of work

Now Costa Rica has a second ex-president in prison and a third is out of work.

Friday an appeal judge ordered Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría to be moved from house arrest to the La Reforma prison in Alajuela. He joined former president Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier there, although the two former presidents are not in the same cellblock.

In Geneva, Switzerland, José María Figueres lost his job as president of the World Economic Forum. The forum, a foundation, said that Figueres was being allowed to resign because he admitted to having a significant contractual agreement with another company while working in a leading position at the forum for two and a half years.

By not declaring that he was being retained as a consultant, Figueres breached the rules of the organization, it said.

Figueres tried to explain away a $900,000 payment made to him by Alcatel, the French telecommunications company, by saying he was serving as a consultant.

Prosecutors are studying the allegations made against Figueres, but because he may never again enter Costa Rica they may have difficulty resolving their questions.

Calderón of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana served from 1990 to 1994. Figueres of the Partido Liberación Nacional served from 1994 to 1998. Rodríguez took office in 1998 and surrendered the port to Abel Pacheco, the current president, in 2002.

Calderón and Figueres are the sons of the leading opponents during the 1948 civil war.

Calderón is in prison for at least nine months while the investigation continues. Rodríguez was sent away for six months Friday.

Tuesday will not be
a big party night

Tuesday is election day in the U.S., and the U.S. Embassy will be hosting mostly Costa Ricans at an evening of vote watching.

This is the biggest election party planned for the evening, but it is by invitation.

The embassy is co-host with the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano in Sabana Norte, where the event is being held.

Members of Republicans Abroad of Costa Rica have a party, too, in an Escazú home, and they are calling it a victory party.

Actually hardly anyone expects the election to be decided until early Wednesday morning, if then. Pollsters say the race between President George Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry is a tight one.

Democrats do not have a single party planned, but members of Democrats Abroad of Costa Rica are meeting in several local homes to view the results.

Pacheco off to Río
for political summit

President Abel Pacheco will leave Costa Rica Tuesday for Río de Janeiro, Brazil, and the summit of the heads of state of the Río Group.

Pacheco will return to Costa Rica Sunday.

While in Río, Pacheco will meet with Vincente Fox, president of México, and with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, among others.

Friday Pacheco will be a guest at a dinner in honor of John Danilovich, the former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica who is now in the same post in Brazil.

"He who runs with wolves learns to howl." This is what we say when a person’s behavior is determined by the crowd he or she hangs out with. Often it is so important to a person to be part of the "in" crowd that they are willing to surrender all their independence and individualism in order to fit in. 

An infamous pack of lobos to which today’s dicho could be applied is this year’s crop of thoroughly corrupt politicians, in Costa Rica and elsewhere, who, when they get caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, are always quick to howl "Everybody does it." 

Being a lobo is not often the smartest thing, because eventually you get caught, and often it’s in a trap of your own making. When everyone surrenders his or her responsibility to think for themselves to the group, then somebody else is likely to be doing our thinking for us. In reality the mentality of the crowd usually assumes that nobody is really doing much thinking at all, but simply following along. But, of course, this leaves the way open for leaders to emerge whose actions are not always the result of the purest of motivations.

I read recently of a restaurant owner in Puerto Viejo, Limón, who had a large group of people come to eat at her establishment, and when they went to pay her credit card machine would not work. Since none of the guests in the party had the cash to pay the entire bill, the owner very graciously told them it would be alright if they returned the following day to pay the bill. 

Several days later, after none from the group had returned to cancel the debt, she began tracking them down and calling them to see when they planed to pay the bill. They all just laughed at her. Now, these folks may think they’re very clever lobos by rewarding the woman’s trust and kindness with brazen dishonesty — everyone does it, right? — but in reality they have placed themselves on the same level as any common low-life purse snatcher.

The way we say it By Daniel Soto

When we buy into the mentality of the mob, then we all are in peril of sinking to the lowest common denominator in the group.

Last year we went to our local branch of the Banco de Costa Rica in Santo Domingo to exchange some dollars for colons. When we got back home my friend was counting out his money and discovered that the teller had given him 10,000 colons too much. Realizing that the hapless clerk would have to make up the missing sum out of his own pocket we quickly returned only to find that the bank had already closed for the day. 

However, we convinced the guard at the door to help us, and he took the 10,000 colons back inside the bank along with a note to the teller explaining that he had given us too many colones in exchange for our dollars. Now, many would call us fools, saying that the teller’s error was merely our good fortune. But the goodness and appreciation that was cultivated by this simple act of human kindness was worth far more than 10,000 colons. 

Now, every time we go to the bank we are greeted with smiles and friendliness, we are no longer just account numbers in an increasingly impersonal world. It often pays to be more like a cordero than a lobo, you see.

There is a place in San José where there are no potholes in the road, the tarmac is even, and drivers pay attention to red traffic lights. It’s the truth! There is! 

Formula Kart Indoor is in Curridabat and is ideal for those who still feel a bit hesitant about venturing out onto the roads of Costa Rica. It also gives you an insight into just what’s running through the minds of some of the drivers you encounter on a daily basis in San José. 

Although the circuit is relatively small, one heat of seven to eight minutes leaves you energized and feeling like a Formula One professional. 

The karts are easy to maneuver and are maintained well. Weights placed at either side of the kart ensure that you don’t roll.  A crash helmet and a neck support are provided. Before you begin, 

At the end of the heat you’ll be given your times for each lap and your best. The instructors will give you some tips at the end of the race and let you know how you can improve. A racer Sergio Sanchez Picado, 26, said "I think the best way for you to improve your time is to use the brake less, you’ll go much faster." Great advice that left others keeping their distance from him in the next race. 

Formula Kart Indoor is located 300 meters east of the Indoor Club in Curridabat. Opening times are from Monday to Friday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 

Prices start at around $6 for a heat. Rates for group heats are a lot cheaper, so it’s recommended that visitors get a few friends to tag along. 

A Turkish citizen convicted of bank fraud in the United States skipped his sentence hearing for an extended stay in Costa Rica, which ended Friday.

Agents of the International Police Agency (INTERPOL), and the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad arrested the man, identified as Omer Eralp, not far from the Plaza de la Democracia in downtown San José. 

According to officials, Eralp opened a number of bank accounts under various names and deposited in them falsified checks and then tried to withdraw cash.

More than $100,000 in bad checks were deposited, said officials. The case was handled in federal court, and Eralp was found guilty earlier this year.

Four persons ranging in age from 19 to 62, have been arrested on the allegation that they were trying to smuggle drugs out of the country by ingesting them.

The latest arrest involved a 62-year-old Dutch man who was detained Saturday afternoon. Police identified him by his last name of Ludwig. The man arrived here Oct. 18 and was leaving Juan Santamaría Airport for Amsterdam. Officials said he had 37 ovules of cocaine in his stomach, approximately a half-kilo of the substance.

Thursday the Policía de Control de Drogas stopped 

Between the two, some 87 ovules of cocaine were recovered.

The third individual arrested Thursday, a man, was headed to Zurich, said officials. He was identified by the last names of Ocampo Arias. He is 31 years old. The man is a resident of Puntarenas and carried more than a kilo of cocaine in his stomach, said officials.